The Awami National Party (Pashto: ‫عوامي نېشنل ګوند‬, Urdu:

‫ ;عوامی نيشنل پارٹی‬Acronym: ANP) is a secular and leftist Pashtun

nationalist political party in Pakistan. The party was founded
by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986 and its current president is
Asfandyar Wali Khan, grandson of Bacha Khan, with Mian
Iftikhar Hussain serving as the Secretary-General. Part of the
PPP-led cabinet of the Pakistani government during 2008−13,
the ANP's political position is considered left wing, advocating
for secularism, democratic socialism, public sector
government, and economic egalitarianism.
ANP was the largest Pashtun nationalist party in Pakistan
between 2008−2013 with influence lying in the Pashtun
dominated areas in and around Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. They
governed the province from 2008–2013 but lost to Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf in the assembly election of 2013.
History
Khan Abdul Wali Khan's political career had been built on the
tradition of intense Pashtun nationalism inherited from his
father, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan). Although it
was formed after the partition of India, most of its leaders had
favoured a united India, and had opposed the partition of
India and the creation of Pakistan.Most of the leaders were
Indian National Congress right hands before the partition of
India. Both men were opposed to the creation of Pakistan,
and after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, they were
imprisoned. In 1956 Wali Khan joined the National Awami
Party (NAP), led by a charismatic Bengali socialist, Abdul
Hamid Khan Bhashani. In 1965 the NAP split into two factions,
with Wali Khan becoming president of the pro-Moscow
faction.The party's members participated in 1970
parliamentary elections through the Pakistan Peoples Party's
platform and the National Awami Party, forming a largest
socialist alliance with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1970. However, the
alliance fell apart and its members joined the Pakistan
National Alliance.
In 1972 the party was strong enough to form coalition
provincial governments, with its partner the Jamiat Ulema-e-
Islam (JUI) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. These
governments were short lived. Wali Khan was again jailed,
and his party was barred from politics when the Supreme
Court upheld the finding of President Bhutto that the NAP was
conspiring against the state of Pakistan. General Zia-ul-Haq
subsequently withdrew the charges against the NAP. Wali
Khan was released, joined the National Democratic Party, and
ultimately formed the Awami National Party. In the
meantime, Prime Minister Bhutto was imprisoned and
executed in April 1979.
Formation and struggle for democracy
The Awami National Party (awami means "people's"), which
depends on ethnic Pashtuns (Pukhtuns) of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NWFP) and northern Balochistan as
its political base, was formed in 1986 by the merger of several
left-leaning parties including the Awami Tehrik and the
National Democratic Party.
The National Democratic Party merged with several other
progressive political and nationalist groups to form the Awami
National Party. Wali Khan, the influential Pashtun and Soviet-
backed leader, was elected as its first president and Sindhi
socialist Rasul Bux Palejo was appointed its first secretary
general. From 1986 to 1988, the ANP party was a member of
the Movement for Restoration of Democracy
Alliance with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)
Since its inception, the ANP has been an important ally of the
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The party formed a coalition
government with the PPP in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and in
Sindh province and Islamabad for central government after
the Pakistani parliamentary elections in 1988. This alliance,
however, collapsed in April 1989 after differences cropped up
between the two parties, after Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
ordered a military action that brutally failed. The Awami
National Party later formed an alliance with the Pakistan
Muslim League (PML) in early June 1989 which led to a formal
split in the party with many activists allying with the PPP.

After the election of Nawaz Sharif in 1990, the ANP again

formed a coalition with former rivals PML. This alliance
proved longer lasting, surviving till 1998 when it collapsed
over differences over the building of Kalabagh Dam and
renaming the province NWFP to Pakhtunkhwa. It won six
seats in the National Assembly in the 1990 elections. In the
1993 national elections, the party won three seats in the
National Assembly. It then joined the Grand Democratic
Alliance, campaigning against the Sharif government's
policies. After Nawaz Sharif's overthrow by Pervez Musharraf,
the party stayed an active member of the Alliance for
Restoration of Democracy, until the 2001 September 11
attacks in the United States, when it left the alliance over
supporting NATO's ouster of the Taliban government. The
party's reputation was damaged in this period following the
arrest of former Federal Minister and senior party leader
Azam Khan Hoti.

In the 2002 elections the party struck up an alliance with the

PPP. However, both parties were electorally routed in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa by the religion-political alliance Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) riding on a wave of anti-American
sentiment in Pakistan.

In the 2008 parliamentary elections, the ANP dominated the

far-right wing coalition, the MMA, a party formed by coalition
of Islamic movements in 2002. The ANP has also won
provincial seats in Balochistan and in Sindh for the first time in
15 years. It formed a coalition government with the Pakistan
People's Party in all three provinces. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
the ANP has its first chief minister since 1948.

The strongholds of the ANP are in the Pashtun dominated

areas of Pakistan, particularly in the Mardan area of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and it has traditionally dominated Charsadda,
Mardan, Nowshera, Peshawar, and Swabi areas of central
KPK. On the other hand, the city of Karachi in Sindh province
hosts one of the largest Pashtun populations in the world, but
the ANP only had 2 seats in 2011, whereas the number of
Pashtuns present would predict them having "up to 25 seats"
Recent events
In May 2008, Asfandyar Wali Khan made an unannounced visit
to the United States in which he and his delegate held high-
level meetings with top U.S. officials. A source explained that
"the delegation is here as part of a visitors programme that
brings important people from other nations for meeting US
civil and military officials and members of the civic society."
This was Wali Khan's second such visit to the United States, a
country where he has several relatives.
In the last decade, hundreds of members of the ANP have
been assassinated or became victims of target killings.Most of
the attacks occurred in the Karachi and Peshawar areas.An
ANP rally in Quetta was subject to a bomb blast on 13 July
2012. The blast killed six people and injured 12 others. It was
speculated that a cycle parked behind the stage was the
probable cause. The dead included two children as well.
The party has also accused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman
Imran Khan and of being complicit in the Taliban attacks.
On 10 July 2018, during the 2018 Pakistani general election
there was a suicide bombing attack on political rally of Awami
National Party (ANP) in YakaToot neighborhood of Peshawar
in which fourteen people were killed and sixty five injured.
Among the killed was ANP's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly
candidate, Haroon Bilour. Bilour was son of Bashir Ahmad
Bilour who was also killed in a suicide bombing attack in
December 2012. Elections for Constituency PK-78 were
postponed to an disclosed date by the Election Commission.
Ideology
The party espouses a nonviolent approach to tackling
extremism.[5] It promotes democratic socialism, secularism,
economic egalitarianism, and Pashtun nationalism. The party
has dense support among the Pashtun population in the
country. Since 2000, its liberal socialism and pro-Pashtun
philosophy has become the integral part of the party,
advocating for the regional autonomy and increased Pashtun
cultural expression. A frequent coalition partner in provincial
politics, it was routed in the 2002 elections because of its
opposition to the Taliban and support for the NATO-backed
Karzai administration in neighboring Afghanistan.
It joined the opposition All Parties Democratic Movement,
and along with other parties except the Pakistan Peoples
Party resigned from Parliament in October 2007 in protest
against the military regime of Pervez Musharraf. It was
targeted in 2007 and 2008 by presumed supporters of the
Taliban. Despite the attacks, the party has advocated dialogue
with moderate tribal elements to end the violence in the
Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally
Administered Tribal Areas.
1958 ban
In 1958 Ayub Khan came to power and all political parties
were banned. The NAP was regarded by some as a front
organization of the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) and it
faced a harsh crackdown from the Ayub government. Hasan
Nasir, NAP Office Secretary and card-carrying member of the
CPP, was tortured to death in custody.
Revival
When Ayub allowed political parties again in 1962, the NAP
was revived with all of its old components except the G.M.
Sayed group and Ganatantri Dal.
Party split
At the end of 1967, a growing rift developed within the party,
allegedly because Maulana Bhashani told his supporters to
support Ayub Khan in the 1965 elections against the joint
opposition nominee Fatima Jinnah. In return he was supposed
to have received payoffs and favours, a fact which he never
contradicted. On 30. November 1967, after a council session
of the party in Rangpur, the NAP formally split into two
factions:
A pro-Chinese Bhashani faction in East Pakistan eventually
formed part of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)
A pro-Soviet Wali Khan faction in West Pakistan now part of
ANP and PPP-P.
Party reunification
The reunification of the old NAP took place after the
destruction of the USSR and now all the factions are Pro-China
in Bangladesh.
The party wants to copy Asia Cooperation Dialogue (or ACD)
program which is the semi-political unity model that East
Bengal and West part should have one loose presidency with
2 chief executives or PMS.